Chocolate coconut. All photos by Melody Lan.

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September 2006

Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Chocolate

Lake Champlain Chocolates

Classic Chocolate Confections, Done To A “T”

CAPSULE REPORT: If your taste in candy runs to classic American flavors, no one does it better than Lake Champlain. With fine craftsmanship, they produce a huge line of all the favorites from generations past, from chocolate-covered marzipan to glazed apricots. A few selections from the line are reviewed here; others are reviewed elsewhere on TheNibble.com.

Lake Champlain Chocolates is America’s candy store: all of the classics remembered from childhood that still taste as good as any memory should.

There’s nothing pretentious here, nothing you can’t pronounce, nothing your grandmother wouldn’t eat. It’s classic Americana via Old World techniques: almond buttercrunch, chocolate bars, chocolate-covered almonds, mint squares, peanut butter cups, pecan caramel clusters. Want to revert to childhood? Have the dark chocolate covered caramels and some gold-foil-covered chocolate coins. Want something more sophisticated? Chocolate-covered candied ginger and orange peel, and dipped apricots, are for you...not to mention chocolate bars filled with Jamaican rum caramel, java truffle and raspberry truffle.

Vermont is full of artisan cheesemakers and specialty food producers of all kinds; Lake Champlain’s chocolate artisans fit right in. The factory of craftsmen turns out products that are handsome and tasty: no one will be disappointed with a box. In fact, the gift boxes themselves are beautiful, in handsome paper printed in two tones of chocolate (milk and dark, of course). The chocolates are all-natural, preservative-free and kosher-certified; many are vegan. The company uses Callebaut Belgian chocolate couverture, 54% cacao for the dark chocolate and 34% cacao for the milk chocolate.

We’re previously written about Lake Champlain’s assorted chocolates, almond buttercrunch and holiday-specific novelties—chocolate pumpkins and Thanksgiving turkeys, e.g. This time, we tried some of what they called their “Epicurean Ecstasies,” and report back that we were ecstatic.

Dark Covered Chocolate Coconut Delights. Your favorite Mounds-lover will relish a box of these (photo above left). Shredded coconut mixed in a creamy, white fondant base is enrobed in dark chocolate and gaily zebra-striped.

Dark Chocolate Peppermint Coins. We like all of the chocolate bars and coins; but if you’re a chocolate mint lover, these peppermint coins have crunch as well as great flavor. We’re only sorry (or perhaps lucky) that they aren’t made in larger bars as well (they are made in Valentine hearts). But the one-coin-a-day portion is a perfect treat for those with the discipline to “pay” themselves that type of chocolate “allowance.” Dark Chocolate Covered Ginger. These are heavenly soft circles of candied ginger (not crystallized), enrobed in chocolate. More spicy than sweet, we absolutely adore them with a cup of coffee, a dish of ice cream or as a snack by themselves.  Vegan.

Candied ginger, enrobed in dark chocolate.

If you’re in Vermont, there are two cafe and chocolate shops in Burlington and one in Waterbury. The factory, which is also in Burlington, has a cafe as well as a store where you can buy “factory seconds” at deep discount.

Prices are verified at publication but are subject to change.                                                                      

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